ECR Group MEPs welcome the fact that the signatory states to the Bern Convention have agreed to reduce the international protection status of the wolf.

Wolf overpopulation has become a problem in different ways across various regions in Europe.

“Wolves have become so numerous that they can be less strictly protected. Now that an international agreement has been reached to abandon the strict protection of wolves, it is simply the case that wolves that cause problems can be hunted,” said Dutch ECR MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen. As ECR shadow rapporteur, Ruissen co-initiated a resolution to this effect in the European Parliament in 2022.

“In the Netherlands, there are children who no longer cycle to school because of the wolves. We could not stand by and watch this problem get further and further out of control”, said Ruissen.

Italian ECR MEP Pietro Fiocchi, who co-signed the parliamentary resolution at the time, said:

“We had to make life easier for shepherds and farmers in mountainous areas where the wolf has become a plague, such as the Italian Alps. The situation of predation on breeders, especially mountain breeders, is no longer sustainable. A decisive step forward has now been taken and a really good result has been achieved for farmers, for tourism, and for the identity of mountain regions.”

Today’s decision by the Standing Committee of the Bern Convention changes the international protection status of the wolf from ‘strictly protected’ to ‘protected’. The amendment to the Bern Convention now paves the way for the European Commission to amend the Habitats Directive accordingly.